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Summer Reading Craft #4

summer-reading

hansel-and-gretel

This week we read Hansel and Gretel as re-told by Cynthia Rylant and beautifully illustrated by Jen Corace.  The Grimm Brothers told some creepy stories, didn’t they?  They were the fear-mongers of the 19th century; now we just have cable news.

This faithful re-telling of the story starts off:

It has been said that guardian spirits watch over and protect small children, and that may be so.  But there are also stories of children who find the courage to protect themselves.  Such is the story of Hansel and Gretel.

I really don’t recommend this tale for the littlest of children, but my four-year-old and six-year-old were able to handle it now that they have some semblance of rational thinking — enough to realize that there are no children-eating witches (but they are not ready to read The Road yet).  The illustrations have a handmade aesthetic with Hansel and Gretel sleeping under a very nice quilt and romping through the woods in cool indie clothes.  Ooh, and I love the witch’s wallpaper.  That witch has great taste.

candy-house

Anyway, we decided to make a cake house for the story project.  Originally I wanted to make a printable paper house that the kids could color, but my kids wouldn’t stand for it.  “It says that the house is made of cake and sugar!”  Okay, fine.  So we got a boxed cake mix and some hippie-style organic candy, and there you go.  Cake house.  Apparently our house has a pet elephant too.  I’m sure you can make something much more elaborate, maybe even with a house-shaped pan.  Give it a try.

ingredients

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Summer Reading Craft #3

summer-reading

wabi-sabi-cover

This week we read one of my new favorites, Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein with illustrations by Ed Young.  It’s the story of a Japanese cat named Wabi Sabi searching for the meaning of her name.  She comes to discover that wabi-sabi is the simple, imperfect beauty that can be found all around us.  Its meaning might be complex for a young child, but I continue to be inspired by the book each time we read it and feel that the story offers a meaningful idea.  And since wabi-sabi is an essential element of handmade goods, I think it’s an apt concept for this blog regardless of your age.  Here is an interesting explanation of its meaning.

The story is beautifully written with a lovely haiku on each page.  Ed Young’s illustrations carry on the wabi-sabi philosophy with collages that include natural and everyday objects, humbly and beautifully woven into the work with an amazing sense of composition.  His final images for the book had to be created quickly because his original designs were lost while he was also undergoing a personal tragedy (you can read more about it here).  So Young changed his process and used splattered paint, magazine clippings, pine needles,  origami papers, cardboard and other found materials.  Take a look at this video interview with both author and illustrator here.

wabi-sabi-collage

For our kid’s project, we read the book again and talked about the images while the children guessed how they were made.  We collected textured materials from around the house and in the yard including burlap, wool felt, bits of a rug pad, fern leaves and patterned paper.  My four-year-old enjoyed the splatter painting with watercolors, then she and I worked out the composition, cut the shapes and glued everything in place.  Then my six-year-old, who didn’t want to participate, came in and said that it wouldn’t be right until we scanned it into the computer and printed it out as a flat image.  She was right.  You can see the scanned version above.  Then she even began working on a collage book of her own while the four-year-old made a collage doll from scraps of paper.  It’s always interesting to see where new ideas take them.

wabi-sabi-collage2

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Summer Reading Craft #2

summer-reading

the-very-lonely-firefly2

I know, it seems like I’ve forgotten about the summer reading crafts, but here’s a project!

Eric Carle naturally comes to mind when thinking about children’s book illustration, so we decided to make these firefly lanterns based on The Very Lonely Firefly, the story of a firefly in search of friends.  You can learn more about Eric Carle’s process here.  I modified the process to make it simpler for the kids.  This is a two-step project because your tissue paper will need time to dry before you make the collage.  And you’ll want to work on a surface that is easy to clean.  Here’s how we made our firefly lanterns:

firefly-lanterns

firefly-lantern-detail1

Supplies:

  • recycled glass jar
  • plain tissue paper
  • paints (we used kid’s poster paints)
  • brushes
  • decoupage glue (mod podge)

1.  First, cut the tissue paper into small squares to make it easier to handle.  Then have kids paint the tissue paper.  To achieve the multi-layered effect of Carle’s work, I encouraged my kids to use several colors on their brush.

painting-tissue-paper

2.  When the kids finish a square, an adult can gently peel the paper from the surface since it tears easily.
3.  Set aside and allow the tissue paper to dry.

painted-paper
4.  Once the tissue paper is dry, cut it into shapes to make a firefly or anything else you can imagine.
5.  Coat the front of the glass jar with mod podge and apply the tissue paper shapes.

gluing-together
6.  Add another coat of glue on top to seal it.
7.  Light a candle and watch your fireflies glow.  Careful: hot glass!

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Summer Reading Craft #1

summer-reading

This summer I’ll be doing crafts based on children’s books.  This week we read Elmer by David McKee.  Elmer is the story of a patchwork elephant who wants to look like everyone else, but soon realizes that it’s boring to blend in with the crowd.  At the end of the book the elephants have a parade, so the girls and I decided to make an elephant parade garland.

Click here to download the .pdf template if you’d like to make one too.

Simply print the template and cut out the elephants from card stock.  Let the children paint, collage, or color them.  Then string them together with twine.  A fun and easy project for a summer afternoon.  Stay tuned for more children’s book projects all summer long!

elmer

elephant-garland3

elephant-garland2

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Pippi Longstocking

Sometimes I select books just for the cover art. I just bought a couple of new chapter books for the girls for that very reason. I love the artwork by Charlie & Lola artist Lauren Child for this updated version of the classic Pippi Longstocking by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren.

And My Father’s Dragon, by Ruth Stiles Gannett and illustrated by Ruth Chrisman Gannett, has such beautiful cover artwork (although sadly the inside illustrations are in black and white). Looks like a good story, so we’ll see if looks or substance wins.